Eurostar - finding the website confusing!

[Bonnie]

Hi everyone.

We are planning a trip to DLRP for August 26th-29th and want to book the Eurostar direct service from St Pancras. We are hoping to travel on the morning of the 26th and return on the evening of the 29th.

When I go to the Eurostar website and put in those dates (for 4 adults) I get the direct service outgoing for £270 (for all 4) but it says the return direct service is sold out. I don't really understand this as that date has only just become available. I have been checking every day since before that particular date was released. The only one I can choose is £450 for the leisure select tickets, which is more than we wanted to spend!

Does anyone have any advice? I know a lot of you are seasoned Eurostar passengers! Will cheaper tickets for the direct service be released soon, do you think? Or will we have to go for the indirect service via Lille? (Does anyone know how far in advance the indirect service tickets are released?)

Thanks for any help you can offer.

 

[Ware Bears]

We had this same thing happen to us the very first time we went to DLRP back in 2005, it was the same Bank Holiday week in August too. We were still able to purchase standard tickets but they were virtually the same price as the Leisure Select ones. I phoned Eurostar to enquire and it turned out that all the cheaper standard tickets had been bagged by a package company for the day we wanted to travel home ~ I wonder if that is what is happening in your case too. I asked if any tickets would be liable to come back into play and the answer was yes, if the package company didn't need them. In other words, 'how long is a piece of string'.

In the end, we splashed out and bought Leisure Select tickets but I kept an eye on the website and the cheaper price tickets didn't appear back on it until about two weeks before the date so I was glad I hadn't waited as there was no guarantee I would have been able to buy all 5 that we needed and I doubt they would have been in the same carriage, let alone next to each other.

I think the indirect tickets go on sale three months before which would be the end of this month. Did you know the direct tickets go on sale six months in advance, which means tickets for your dates have already been on sale for over two months? Plus you can phone before the six months and "reserve" a place in advance, Eurostar will then phone you with a price before they go on general sale.

I'd certainly phone Eurostar to clarify the situation, good luck.

 

[Bonnie]

Thank you for your reply.

I spoke to someone at Eurostar who was actually quite rude and tried to tell me that I should buy the £193 return tickets because it may be that the indirect service isn't running on those dates and "this may be your only viable option"! Then tried to get me to book a hotel package and completely ignored me when I said I'd be getting shareholders discount - seemed to think their packages are better value?!!

I asked her when the indirect trains run and she was very vague, so I pestered a bit more and she went off to ask someone. When she came back she said it shouldn't be a problem but I'd have to wait and see. She clearly wanted me to buy the expensive ones! Probably gets commission! (For the record I'll be getting them through Quidco!)

I didn't know they went on sale 6 months beforehand. My partner phoned up and asked for the date for the standard tickets going on sale at a "cheaper price" than what they were at the time - they said 120 days in advance for direct, 90 days for indirect! But ever since the 120-day cut-off the prices have gone up and up! Hmmmmmmmmmm!

Don't think I'll be phoning Eurostar again after two slightly dodgy phone calls, but I've done a quick test and it appears that tickets 92 days in advance are currently available on the site. I'll check at the end of the month for indirect tickets... eek, I hope there are some, or we'll be swimming there!

 

[Cyrano]

Good luck getting your tickets

 

[chris1373]

Thought you would be interested to know....

Tickets generally go on sale four months in advance...thats 120 days before the departure date. Disney services do not follow this rule as I experienced the other day when I discovered them available for November! Therefore August would have been on sale back in January probably... It is outside the normal booking schedule for Paris and Brussels, however SNCF trains in France follow a different booking schedule with ninety days before departure. Therefore, with two different booking window openings, not including Disney's own special times, this may have caused the confusion.

Eurostar works on a system similar to the airlines, that is to say a first come first serve basis. It is regrettable that significant allocations of cheap tickets are selfishly pilfered by travel agencies in the first instance whereby the rest of us are left with the scraps left to fight over. These agencies seem very keen to buy them up over public holidays. If they do not sell them all, they are returned to the booking system and may cause last minute bargains but never hold your breath as this is rare.

Anyway getting a cheap ticket to Disney is not impossible, there are just a few things to consider...

1) The Brussels line (Stops at Lille) is not as popular as Paris...therefore it is cheaper.

2) Sometimes, first class and standard class travel combinations work out cheaper due to the pricing structure, non flexible is always the cheapest ticket type.

3) Travelling to Disney has limited seats, therefore availability may not be good hence the expensive price. Travel to Paris and take the RER to Marne la Vallee (45mins) there are more services therefore lower prices. Lille may still be better though for price.

4) Normally tickets are cheaper depending on what time you go. Sometimes it is easier to avoid the weekend by choosing midweek times. However if this is not possible, you may want to consider the train times themselves. It is always cheaper early morning or late evening because these times are somewhat uncivilised hours, therefore not many people travel on them.

I hope this is of use to you and I wish you happy hunting for your tickets. By the way, as for the contact centre getting commission on their tickets....thats a myth...otherwise they would be rich.

All the best.

 

[Demonica]

1) The Brussels line (Stops at Lille) is not as popular as Paris...therefore it is cheaper.

Do you know at all how to get to Disneyland from Lille? Does it take long?

 

[liberty]

Thank you for your reply.

I spoke to someone at Eurostar who was actually quite rude and tried to tell me that I should buy the £193 return tickets because it may be that the indirect service isn't running on those dates and "this may be your only viable option"! Then tried to get me to book a hotel package and completely ignored me when I said I'd be getting shareholders discount - seemed to think their packages are better value?!!

I asked her when the indirect trains run and she was very vague, so I pestered a bit more and she went off to ask someone. When she came back she said it shouldn't be a problem but I'd have to wait and see. She clearly wanted me to buy the expensive ones! Probably gets commission! (For the record I'll be getting them through Quidco!)

I didn't know they went on sale 6 months beforehand. My partner phoned up and asked for the date for the standard tickets going on sale at a "cheaper price" than what they were at the time - they said 120 days in advance for direct, 90 days for indirect! But ever since the 120-day cut-off the prices have gone up and up! Hmmmmmmmmmm!

Don't think I'll be phoning Eurostar again after two slightly dodgy phone calls, but I've done a quick test and it appears that tickets 92 days in advance are currently available on the site. I'll check at the end of the month for indirect tickets... eek, I hope there are some, or we'll be swimming there!

Ahh, i no what you mean, when i spoke to Eurostar last year on the phone, they were so rude to me!.
I hope you get everything sorted out

 

[MinnieMouse73]

Do you know at all how to get to Disneyland from Lille? Does it take long?

We came back via Lille a couple of years ago and it was very easy. I can't remember exactly how long it was but not long - maybe about 40 minutes? I don't think it was as long as an hour but I'm not certain!

 

[thelittlemermaid83]

I alway seem to get nice people on the phone when i ring Eurostar...prob pops up DLP freak on there screen when i ring lol. The last woman even used to live in my street a few years back. Maybe thats why i got a free upgrade lol.

 

[Mrs Stonfiesta]

I booked 6 tickets (£65 return) for eurostar for the direct train going 8th Dec to 11th Dec last week, spoke to a really helpful guy who gave me seat numbers and then chnaged them for me when i realised we would have 2 tables therfore meaning 2 people would be sat looking at 2 people they didnt know for the whole journey, so he chnaged them around agian, and then again so we were facing backwards in the train (i prefere it this way )! then OH's aunt decided she wanted to come so i phoned them up today to see if we could get her in the same carriage or not too far away from us and hey presto an extremly helpful girl called kimberly in team 128 managed to get her next to us going out and coming back!!! amazing customer serivce and i couldnt have been more pleased! Just to give you hope that they are not all bad...

 

[chris1373]

Do you know at all how to get to Disneyland from Lille? Does it take long?

There are regular services from Lille Europe station to Marne La Vallee. That should take about an hour to get there, but you will arrive on the doorsteps of the park.

You do not need to change stations, just simply platforms.

 

[miamivice]

i tried eurostar, but couldn't book for december at moment.

i then used raileurope and was able to book, and got a cheap price £65 return per adult on the direct service from london

 

[crazygunuk]

i tried eurostar, but couldn't book for december at moment.

i then used raileurope and was able to book, and got a cheap price £65 return per adult on the direct service from london

WOW! just tried RailEurope and much cheaper than Eurostardirect...almost £40 per person...nice one